We drove from Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port on Tuesday, with many stops along the way. Our first stop was Eglise de Madeleine, built in 1328, just outside Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port. The door was locked but the Eglise, built of stone, was located in a scenic place on a creek, with an old cemetery.
The next stop, just a few kilometers away, was Eglise Saint-Pierre, built in the 12th century, and restored in 1630, with a beautiful painted interior.
A few kilometers further north, we drove along a winding narrow country lane to Chapelle Saint-Nicolas d’Harambeltz. Founded in the 12th century, it has been owned and maintained by the same four families in the village for over 1000 years. The door was locked, open only a few days each year, so we walked about the exterior and the cemetery.
Several kilometers north, we stopped in the village of Sauveterre-de-Béarn. We walked down to their Legend Bridge, up to the Tour Monreal, and we saw the exterior of Eglise Saint-Andre de Sauveterre. The Eglise sits on the main square of the village, bordered by the remparts high on a hill overlooking the Gave d’Oloron River. The Eglise was built in the 12th century and is filled with interior painted walls. A funeral was about to begin, so we could not enter the Eglise. We stopped at a nearby boulangerie for a coffee and croissant.
We had lunch reservations in Orthez at La Maison de L’horloge. We arrived a bit early and walked to Le Pont Vieux on the Ousse River. The weekly market in the village was wrapping up, along the street of the Eglise Saint-Pierre, built in the 12th century with a beautifully painted interior.
Our final stop of the day was at Couvent des Jacobins in Saint-Sever. Thé Couvent is a former Dominican monastery, founded in 1280. It was once a center of Dominican monastic life and played a role in combatting Catharism. We walked about the cloisters. We drive just a few hundred meters to the Abbaye de Saint-Sever, a Benedictine abbaye founded in founded in 988, on the village square, with beautiful cloisters, and beautifully painted chapels in the church.
Le Couvent:
